by <unknown>
"Hiss!"
Han Te's spine was utterly cracking noises. His every finger was cramping beyond his control, but he simply gritted his teeth to stop him from screaming.
"Senior brother!" Liu Li almost burst into tears and glared at Ma Ku and Fei Zhong with her fuming eyes.
"And there's this little girl. Is she your daughter?" Sensing the fury in Liu Li's eyes, Fei Zhong smiled even more delightedly. He licked the gaps in the fat on his face with a tongue that was full of sharp thorns. "Her voice is as beautiful as her face. What's her name? Liu Li, isn't it? Tsk, tsk, tsk. That's a good name…
"Killing is an art as well as entertainment. I am not as indiscriminate as Ma Ku, and I like to kill those who are pretty and scream well. Whenever I meet such people, I won't feel satisfied until I have killed them over seven days and seven nights."
"Fei Zhong, don't you dare!" Gu Zhengyang's eyes seemed to be crystal bombs that were burning furiously and could explode at any time.
Fei Zhong and Ma Ku looked at each other and grinned hideously.
"In fact, neither I nor Ma Ku are bloodthirsty, otherwise the boss wouldn't have asked us to come to negotiate with you." The fat on Fei Zhong's face was shivering, as if he was trying to flirt. "Right now, you have only two options. You can volunteer to cooperate with us and give the place of the village leader to Zhao Lie. Then, you will maintain the order in the village together with Zhao Lie, select a thousand vigorous warriors, and make sure that they join our operation willingly and happily. This will be good for both parties. For us, we will be spared a lot of unnecessary work. For you, you will avoid a catastrophe, and you may earn tremendous trophies in the future!
"Otherwise, we will have to go on a killing spree and execute the uncles, elders in the village, and yourself. Then, I will have to trouble myself by killing your daughter and your disciple for a couple of days. I believe that they will certainly come up with a solution to convince all the other villagers before the last day comes.
"Gu Zhengyang, you have always been a smart guy. You have kept the safety of the Village of Peace for twenty years right next to Double Dragons Valley not entirely because of your worthless Sky Breaking Hammer. So, what will you choose right now?"
All the bandits of the Red Fire Gang grinned hideously as if nobody were around. The villagers that had been armed to teeth on their opposite seemed like fish in a barrel to them.
"Leader?"
"Leader!"
Sensing the killing intent that was vaguely spreading out of the tough bandits and understanding the gap between the enemy and themselves, all the villagers could not help shuddering hard.
"Master, don't—don't care about me. I'm happy to die!" Han Te shrieked under Fei Zhong's feet.
"Dad, we—we are scared of nothing!" Liu Li also shouted under the smiles of Ma Ku and Fei Zhong.
"Two little fools," Fei Zhong said, still smiling. "There are a million things that are scarier than death in the Land of Sins. After you witness them, you will naturally understand what fear is."
"Enough, Fei Zhong!" Struggle, dilemma, and hesitation beamed out of his face. Several different colors seemed to be confronting on his face like chaotic armies until it became gray and withered in the end. "You can do… whatever you want!"
"Good choice." Fei Zhong had foreseen that Gu Zhengyang would bend. After all, the guy was merely a minor leader in a Desolate World. He gestured lazily, hinting for Zhao Lie to take over the commander of the Village of Peace.
However, Gu Zhengyang stepped forward again and stood before Zhao Lie.
"Huh?" Fei Zhong raised an eyebrow, which was perhaps the only distinguishable natural feature on his face, somewhat in dissatisfaction.
"I'm not done yet." Taking a deep breath, Gu Zhengyang stared at Zhao Lie, Fei Zhong, and Ma Ku and declared, one word after another, "You can do whatever you want… over my dead body!"
"Master!"
"Dad!"
"Leader!"
Han Te, Liu Li, and the many villagers all jumped to their feet. They all sensed that Gu Zhengyang's fire of life was burning furiously like a candle.
Shock and confusion beamed out of Fei Zhong's eyes. He cleaned his ears with his short, fat fingers and said, "Excuse me?"
Ma Ku swallowed hard, and his eyes glittered with interest. "Excellent. You are bold enough. I haven't killed anybody yet today. You are certainly worth killing!"
Zhao Lie stared at Gu Zhengyang for a while. The bafflement in his eyes gradually turned into embarrassment. He somehow lost the courage to look Gu Zhengyang in the eyes but simply sighed. "Leader, why do you have to ask to be killed? You can't change anything or save anyone by playing the hero!"
"Yes. I never realized how ridiculous I was until today." Gu Zhengyang smiled bitterly. "You are right, Zhao Lie. I should have listened to you a long time ago instead of persisting in some meaningless stuff in decades of struggle, which could not change anything or save anybody at all!"
Zhao Lie narrowed his eyes. "In that case, why are you still standing in my way? You don't have to die. Why?"
"Perhaps…" Gu Zhengyang smiled miserably. He opened his arms and protected everyone behind him, but his eyes drifted to a beautiful future somewhere far away. "I am also a hopeless idiot who is stupid enough to wish that the Gold Barley can grow all over the Land of Sins!"
"I don't understand any of your nonsense." Ma Ku shoved Zhao Lie away and grinned at Gu Zhengyang, his sharp teeth glittering coldly. "Sky Breaking Hammer? Die now!"
Right when six flames of light flowed out of Ma Ku's arms, forming three unstoppable light blades on each of his fists and locking onto the Gu Zhengyang's carotid artery, deafening explosions erupted outside.
The crystal bombs that were buried deep at the bottom of the lake raised overwhelming undercurrents, which blasted the iron-shelled boats and shook them hard. Everybody on-board could barely keep themselves steady.
Then, a series of explosions that were even fiercer echoed further away.
The aftermath of the explosion made all the lights in the command cabin flicker and blink.
Before Gu Zhengyang and the villagers realized what was going on, Ma Ku and Fei Zhong, as two great bandits, both smelled the scent of danger from the subtle changes in the air.
Looking at each other, Ma Ku hinted at Fei Zhong, and Fei Zhong left the command cabin with a couple of bandits to check the situation on the deck.
Nobody returned.
Not only did none of them come back, even their communication channels were cut off. They seemed to have fallen into a black hole that was beyond all perception.
The few sentry posts that had been deployed on the deck previously had also vanished into thin air. There was nothing but background noise in the communication shell. All of them had gone missing.
Ma Ku, the unparalleled bandit who had made everybody sweat hard, was finally soaked in cold sweat himself.
"Old fart!" Ma Ku raised his voice, and he looked even more hideous than before. But the more hideous he became, the less he was able to conceal the fright deep inside his eyes. "What tricks are you playing outside?"
Gu Zhengyang and the many villagers looked at each other in bewilderment, not having the faintest clue what happened outside in their ignorance.
Han Te and Liu Li, however, looked at each other in secret. They vaguely realized that the anomaly outside might have something to do with 'Grandpa Yao'.
Observing the room, Ma Ku realized that the villagers really did not know what was going on. Also, under the intimidation of the Red Fire Gang, they barely had any determination to resist. Snorting hard, he asked Zhao Lie to disarm them before he left with a reminder. "Stay here and watch them. If anybody acts disobediently, kill everyone in the command cabin immediately!"
He went back to the deck with a few trusted subordinates.
Then, like Fei Zhong, nobody returned.
Zhao Lie and the remaining tough bandits were caught in the most awkward situation.
The bandits and the villagers stared at each other. As time went by, all the explosions outside seemed to disappear. The weird silence gradually reversed the confidence of the two parties.
"Dad…"
Zhao Chong swallowed hard nonstop.
Zhao Lie's eyes shuddered time and time again. Then he suddenly said, "Leader, tie everybody else up and bring Han Te and Liu Li to check the deck with me!"
"Huh?"
Another captain of the bandits seemed dissatisfied about his arrangement, but Zhao Lie simply snapped. "There's no other way out of here. If anything happens outside, nobody is going to get away!"
Chapter 1981: Father and Son |
Zhao Lie, Zhao Chong, and another six tough bandits stuck their guns at Gu Zhengyang, Han Te, and Liu Li while they all crawled onto the deck.
There was nothing but silence outside. The deck was covered in some unsubstantial dark mist, as if the boat had sailed into a world of phantoms.
Although they were all seasoned bandits from the Bloody Worlds, they could not help but sweat hard, and their teeth were clattering beyond control.
"What's going on? Where is everybody?"
"Why are the roars dying down? Isn't the Black Water Gang supposed to be attacking furiously from the front?"
"Ma Ku and Fei Zhong, where are you?"
Everybody stepped onto the deck fearfully. They only felt that the stars in the sky and the rays from their crystal suits were all absorbed by the mist. The objects only three meters away were already hazy and blurred. There was no telling where the deck ended at all.
As they moved forward, they finally discovered that a crystal suit seemed to be standing in the middle of the mist. The captain of the bandits was overjoyed and touched it, but the crystal suit collapsed abruptly as if it were made of glass, turning into glittering pieces and components on the ground!
The clinking noises bombarded everybody's heart like a hailstorm.
The coldness that felt like an icy cone rose from the hearts of Zhao Lie and the captain of the bandits at the same time.
Compared to the powerful forces in the Elysian Worlds, all the Red Fire Gang had were the crystal suits of the lowest level, and most of them had been refurbished multiple times. But still, they were the 'king of magical equipment', highly durable.
Right now, the crystal suit had been dissected and reduced into the most fundamental components. Even the lens the size of a fingernail had been dismantled.
What was most terrifying was that the components of the crystal suit after dissection were still standing like an intact crystal suit and did not fall until an external force was applied!
There was no body or blood among the pieces of the crystal suit, as if the bandit wearing the crystal suit had been directly vaporized.
The captain of the bandits and Zhao Lie looked at each other and gulped at the same time. Crouching, they moved forward inch by inch.
They found no one at all, only a black human shape on the deck. It seemed that somebody had been lying on the ground and burning so fiercely that the deck had been left with a clear dent in the contour of the person.
The deck was made of metal. It was not difficult to leave a blackened mark on it, but to make it melt and dent would certainly require an unbelievably high temperature.
The outcome of the person who was burnt at such a temperature was not hard to imagine. They must have been completely vaporized without leaving the slightest ashes.
When the captain of the bandits and Zhao Lie swallowed hard in fright, the dark mist around finally somewhat dispersed, allowing them to see further away and hear desperate screams.
It was Ma Ku's voice!
The tough bandits were all shocked. After they blew apart the mist and looked, the first thing they saw was not Ma Ku but Fei Zhong.
The notorious, perverted bandit from Double Dragons Valley who liked torturing the innocent had been removed from his crystal suit. He was kneeling on the ground in a weird posture, begging for mercy, but the fat on his face had stopped shivering. He had already been killed.
His face could not have been more twisted, as if his facial organs were trying to crawl out of his face and escape from his head. The lower half of his body was also contaminated by a large brown stain. It was obvious that he had peed and shat his own pants!
What kind of strength could've possibly removed Fei Zhong's crystal suit in an instant, killed the bandit, and frightened him to incontinence before his death?
Zhao Lie, Zhao Chong, the captain, and all the tough bandits seemed to have been caught in the most unbelievable nightmare, their nerve endings burning hard.
Right then, Ma Ku staggered out of the black mist.
The crystal suit on his body was gone, too, revealing his bamboo-like body that was trembling nonstop. He was supposed to be a fearless and ferocious bandit, but he looked like a panicked little girl, and he shrieked in such a high-pitched voice that it almost sounded like a hen whose throat had just been slit.
"Boss Ma!"
Seeing his deformed face, the few tough bandits all felt that their blood was freezing, wondering whether they should give him a hand or immediately run.
Ma Ku's eyes had been entirely filled with blood, and the pupils and the whites were indistinguishable. When he saw everyone, he seemed to have run into the most dreadful ghosts. The panic on his face turned into devastation, and tremendous black blood ran out of his nostrils and his mouth. While he was running, he suddenly kneeled on the ground and screamed, "Don't come over. You're all dead. You were all killed by me. Why are you still coming back? Argh! Stay away!"
He writhed on the ground in pain. Irregular wounds somehow appeared on his body, which did not seem to be the cutting of sharp blades but the biting of teeth and the tearing of fingernails with brute force. His skin was falling apart, and he bled hard in the most miserable way.
In his screams, Ma Ku squeezed his head hard with both hands, and his eyeballs bulged wider and wider before they finally exploded amid cracking noises.
Blood erupted out of his eye sockets like a spring. There was no telling whether he had crushed his own skull or some other uncanny force inside his head did it. The brutal bandit who had been persisting in the doctrine of one kill a day collapsed, and his body was still cramping. He could not have looked more terrible.
The scene froze the legs of all the tough bandits.
Or rather, the solid deck had become a thick swamp, and a hundred pale, decayed hands were extending out of the swamp and grabbing their legs, making it impossible for them to move away.
In the middle of the black mist, an enormous object that looked like an altar moved close slowly, which turned out to be a spiritual puppet that looked somewhat clumsy.
The deep red indicator was flickered, adding to the mysteriousness. The jigsaw and the drill emitted coldness that the dark night could not hide. The Fiend Star carved on the surface on the iron shell, after being contaminated by the scattered blood, looked like a hideous smile from every perspective.
"How—How is it possible?"
The tough bandits, Zhao Lie, and Gu Zhengyang were all astounded. They found it hard to believe that it was a seemingly clumsy and crude spiritual puppet that had tortured and butchered Ma Ku and Fei Zhong.
"Take it down, or none of us are getting out of here!" Zhao Lie roared crazily and opened fire at the spiritual puppet first.
The nerves of all the tough bandits had been tightened to their limits. Now that somebody had started, everybody unleashed all their firepower, raising a metal storm on the front part of the deck!
Zhao Lie, however, grunted when everybody opened the fire before he flew backward as if he were hit by an uncanny force.
He did not forget to drag his son along as he flew away. He also pushed the backs of Gu Zhengyang, Han Te, and Liu. While the three of them were shoved to the center of the battlefield, his own speed of escape was significantly boosted.
Dragging Zhao Chong, Zhao Lie ran to the end of the dec
k without caring about anything else.
Feeble screams echoed behind him, and the storm of bullets came to an abrupt halt only half a second later.
The spiritual puppet had slaughtered the bandits as if it were slapping several annoying mosquitoes.
Zhao Lie was horrified, and Zhao Chong's face had completely blanched.
When the father and the son dashed to the end of the boat, half running and half crawling, their legs were shot by bullets from more than ten directions.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The leg joints of their crystal suits as well as their own knees and ankles were blown up. The two of them screamed at the same time and rolled on the deck, leaving a deep trace of blood.
Raising their heads, they discovered that the battle at the front of the Village of Peace had ended at some point. The lake was now as bright as daylight under the illumination of a hundred searchlights.
Even if they jumped into the water, there would be no way that they could escape.
"Dad!" Zhao Chong was panicking. In tears of remorse, he shouted, "What do we do? What do we do now?"
"Don't be anxious. I've made thorough preparations." Zhao Lie's eyes dimmed. The muscles on his lips trembled as he looked at the spiritual puppet that was approaching from the black mist. Touching his son's head, he gnashed his teeth. "I've made thorough arrangements at the end of the ship. There will be a slim chance of survival as long as you jump off. I'll hold the enemy back for a while. Just run to the Bloody Worlds!"
"What?" Zhao Chong was confused, delighted, and sad. "What about you, Dad—"
Before his voice died down, all the brilliance in his eyes froze. There was nothing but horror and bewilderment.
It was because Zhao Lie had stabbed a dagger into his head through his jaw. After the spiritual energy surged out, all his brain matter was damaged.
Zhao Chong was unable to say anything anymore. He collapsed in his father's cold arms.
"I'm sorry, son."
With tears of blood flowing out of his eyes, Zhao Lie mumbled, "Fei Zhong was right. There are a million things that are scarier than death in the Land of Sins. Your personality and your capability mean that you cannot survive in the Bloody Worlds… I already tasted the misery twenty years ago, and I will not let you bear the agony that I once bore in the past!"